An Age of Miracles
by randolph churchill
Summary: With the Avengers destroyed, the new masters of the world assemble their own team.


Authors Note: This is a sequal to my earlier story, With Liberty and Justice For All

Sokovia was a shithole.

That had always been Alexander Pierce's opinion and he was not about to change it now. As his plane landed at Novi Grad airport he took in the scenery. Novi Grad was the same as always- those buildings that hadn't been knocked down in the latest civil war had collapsed in on themselves in the latest wave of urban decay. Only in the very centre of the city did one begin to find civilisation-buildings that looked as if they could stand up to a stiff breeze and might actually be worth going inside of.

Officially he was here as part of a goodwill tour of Europe, to shore up morale against the threat of HYDRA. Unofficially he was there to ensure that HYDRA would get the assets it needed. He chuckled at the thought of explaining that to one of the congressmen who weren't yet in the know. They were wary enough about the Director of SHIELD running off to Europe without hearing that he was in charge of the enemy all along.

The Sokovians were good at two things though- hiding HYDRA bases and giving welcomes. They laid out the red carpet and he found himself greeted by the President of Sokovia himself, along with a band of ridiculously uniformed honour guards. Pierce was wary about meeting with the President- the man was a born lackey with less spine than a slug. This made him a good tool but not very good company.

Sure enough the President insisted upon babbling on about how great he thought that Pierce and SHIELD in general were. He said that Sokovia's miniscule armed forces were under SHIELD's command, as if this represented some great victory. He spoke at length about the damage HYDRA's attack had done to his country, although as far as Pierce knew the only significant Sokovian casualty had been some Special Forces colonel. And of course, once they had some privacy the President pledged his allegiance to HYRDA with a bombast that the Red Skull would think was over the top. It was enough to make one sick.

Pierce endured his company for several hours, before he slipped away quietly. He had a job to do after all. He had his driver take him to the biggest SHIELD facility in Sokovia, a big research station. Of course, whatever the logo on the door might say this was really a HYDRA facility. Here he could be his true self, without having to worry about keeping his public image.

He strode through the huge facility, walking past the operatives milling around like ants until he came to a man in his fifties, with a monocle and a buzz-cut.

"Good evening Wolfgang" he said "Hail HYDRA!"

"Hail HYDRA" replied Wolfgang Von Strucker "and a good evening to you too, Alexander. I trust you had a pleasant journey?"

"The journey was terrible" replied Pierce "can't stand planes. I wanted to take a helicarrier but they're not so popular nowadays. Might have given people ideas"

They both had a good laugh at that.

"Yes, it is a shame that we must still kowtow to those with no idea of our dream" said Strucker "but it is most amusing, is it not to watch them praise SHIELD and spit upon HYDRA, not knowing that we are one and the same"

"Yes indeed" said Pierce "this is quite some facility you have here. You must show me around"

"I assure you Alexander, I will. But let us forget such trivial matters. You have come here today to see the rebirth of the Avengers. Will the others be joining us?"

"I should think so" said Pierce "it's just been a struggle to get them all in one place. They should be here in a couple of hours"

Strucker spent the next few hours showing Pierce around the facility, at all the various artifacts and experiments there. The majority of it came from the Battle of New York but there were bits and pieces from all kinds of places.

"And this" exclaimed Strucker "is the pride of our collection. The Sceptre of Loki. Not even Dr List truly understands it. We think that it may be related in some fashion to the Tesseract"

"Regardless" Strucker continued "the Sceptre has been invaluable to us. This team would be impossible without it. Let Whitehall continue to play with his Obelisk, for we have a far more impressive artefact"

"Your facility is very impressive old friend" said Pierce "I hope that the team you have assembled is equally impressive"

"You have already read their files, have you not?" asked Strucker

"I have" replied Pierce "but there is a difference between reading about something and seeing it happen"

It was only about half an hour later that the other leaders of HYDRA arrived. Daniel Whitehall and Octavian Bloom drifted in, followed by the Banker, the Baroness and the Sheikh. Strucker went and summoned Dr List. There were fewer present than there would normally be. John Garrett and Gideon Mallick were both dead, the former at the hands of what remained of SHIELD and the latter at the hands of Pierce himself. Pierce mourned neither man. Both of them had shown that they were more loyal to themselves than to HYDRA. Once they were all sat down, Pierce began to speak.

"As you all know, I have gathered you together, here today so that we may bear witness to the creation of a new team of special individuals. We have destroyed the Avengers- now we shall replace them. Hail HYDRA"

There was the usual chorus of "hail HYDRA" from all present.

The Banker was the first to respond.

"I still do not understand" he said "why we are seeking to recruit freaks in the hope that they will defend us. We do not need defending. What great threats are there, that we should require such help? The Avengers are dead. SHIELD is a ruin. The governments of Earth dance to our tune. I see no reason for us to waste so many resources on this."

"That's funny" said Pierce "because I can see two reasons. Reason number one: we are still under threat. Coulson's gang have managed to evade capture for two years now. We're still no closer to finding their bases. They're no threat at the moment, true. But they've got assets on their side that could put us in a world of trouble. They've taken the Winter Soldier from us and if the latest reports are true, they've joined up with Thor. What if Thor convinces his father to intervene against us? Not to mention that there could be a dozen other threats lurking around the corner. Already we have had two alien invasions within a year of each other- we cannot be unprepared for a third"

"Reason number two: it win's over hearts and minds. The public loved the Avengers- loved them with all that their stupid, fickle hearts were capable of. And we'll let them carry on loving them. Now that they're safely dead and safely silent they can say whatever we want them to have said. But there is a gap in our propaganda narrative that cannot be filled by corpses. What we need is people who can show up in garish outfits and battle our enemies. What we need are people who can go on TV and address the public with big, toothy smiles. Now, enough talk. Dr List, send for the first member of our team"

Authors Note: Next chapter we get to meet HYDRA's team. Any theories so to who will be on it?


End file.
